Thanks guys!
Im in cosmetology school right now so my hair is a different color practically every other week. Fun stuff!
Purple never turns out in my hair either, atleast for long...if u try it again have the hair where you plan to put the purple lightened first, then add purple, and have them put a gloss. Helps keep it longer

The trick to lightening is the number of developer you use. 10 is 0-1 level 20-2 levels, 30-3, 40-4. But you have to leave whatever your using for ten minutes longer than the developer says as well, 20 for 10 developer, 40 for 30 developer, etc.
Once you get the hang of that you can pretty much get the color of everything you do right